


all you have is your fire

by sucresroses



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Gen, Heavy Angst, Minor Violence, One Shot, no beta we die like wilbur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27619247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sucresroses/pseuds/sucresroses
Summary: L’manberg is assured of their victory against Schlatt, but before they go to war, a figure sneaks out west in the middle of the night. Unbeknownst to him, another figure follows him closely, waiting for the right moment...
Relationships: Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	all you have is your fire

**Author's Note:**

> this is short fic that i wanted to write because i crave wilbur and niki angst >:) this is not cannon as of november 16th, but i like to imagine what would’ve happened if Wilbur tried to blow up l’manberg secretly

The wind whips and snaps around them, two lone figures shrouded in the darkness. One is hunched over, hand and feet buried in the snow. Aside from the howling wind, strained gasping can be heard from the figure with the tattered cloak. Heaving a couple more breaths, the figure spits at the snow, staining the ice before him ruby red. 

“You— you of all people, I can’t— you have no idea—“ he raves.

“Shut up.” a soft voice rings.

The silence deafens them both. Niki takes a deep breath and inhales the chilly night air.

“You know just as well as I do that nothing you say can save you here,” she pauses, and moves closer to him. “You promised we would be safe, that we could win without bloodshed. Yet here we are.” As if to remind him, the wound on her check drips more blood into the snow below, melting upon contact.

Agony holds Wilbur in a loving embrace. His mind races as he tracks her stony expression. He lied to her, running to Pogtopia to get more red stone for the explosives. He hasn’t expected her to follow him, cloaked in the night.

She doesn’t understand that they cannot win L’manberg back, it’s no longer what it was. This is the only way. If only she could see… 

Wilbur coughs up more blood, and closes his eyes. How quickly can he end this? Coiled with rage and desperation, he searchingly looks up at her face, scanning for cracks. 

There.

Wilbur bows his head down, his nose and lips grazing the soft snow. “I know I haven’t been fair to you Niki, and I am truly sorry. You were there for me when it was just Tommy and I against the world, and— and I could never thank you enough for that. I’m forever in your debt.” he concedes, looking up at her through his eyelashes.

Niki shifts her stance, feeling the icy water melt through her leather boots. Sincerity is all she wanted from him, but this is something far too sweet. Not after all that rage in his eyes, behind his sword. The way he looked at her… there is something more lurking behind his stare. He remains hunched on the ground, snowflakes gathering on his eyelashes as he waits.

“You know an apology isn’t going to cut it. Where were you when you wrote to me? Promising that you would rescue me? I fought my way out of Schaltt’s grasp, and I did it alone. The very person I trusted to run this nation with burned my flag, our flag, to the ground.” she bites.

“I don’t think you see me running around, planting dynamite underneath my home, my country! Even when all I could think about was how I couldn’t help Tubbo or Tommy, and all I could trust was that you would make it back. Bring them home to me.” She blinks tears out of the corner of her eyes.

“I waited Wilbur. I waited for you.” 

Niki’s breath catches, and then fogs the air as she gasps through tears. She shudders and grits her teeth. 

“Can you see what you’ve done? Can you even be sorry?”

Their breaths fill the air, too loud, harsher than the biting wind.

“I really don’t know what you expect to happen here.” he finally sneers. “Your little tirade was quite endearing, but didn’t really resonate with me, you know?” he smiles.

Niki tries to not let her despair show. There was no point to this, even as much as she hated to give up whatever ground she had left. Sighing, she moves her hand to the hilt of her sword, and draws it out into the pale moonlight.

“I will not ask Wilbur. Surrender. Come back home and fix what you have broken.” 

A heartbeat passes. Niki stands with the sword pointed at his throat, reflecting moonbeams into his dark and burning eyes. 

“You know I can’t do that, Niki.” he whispers.

Her frown tightens, and she watches as his eyes drop from her face to the edge of her sword. He smiles.

“Before you end it, can I ask where you got that sword? Diamond, and unenchanted. Surely they didn’t give this to you,” he pauses, and chuckles, “But I do know that Schlatt’s taxes left you with no diamonds to your name… And I vividly remember you writing to me that day, saying, ‘I kept your diamonds safe Will.’” 

She freezes. Her knuckles go white around the hilt. 

“I could’ve only dreamed of such a fitting end for me. Sliced open by my own diamonds. What irony.” he laughs. “Oh don’t give me that look. We both know how this will end… The question is, can you do it?”

The last of the snowflakes begin to finally disappear, leaving them in a heavy, chilling silence. Wilbur tracks the way Niki’s breath fogs the air, looking for weaknesses. All he finds is a stare that chills him, freezing him more than the icy ground beneath him. 

He’s so tired. Tired of fighting, left only to hurt the ones he loves with scathing insults. Is this all he is? A broken man, abandoned by his family, his friends. He knows he lost his way, yet all he could do was fight for the last scraps of dignity he still had. Wilbur inhales a shuddering breath.

I’m so cold.

Niki’s composure does not waver, but she hesitates as she sees tears drip down from his face, mixing with his blood in the snow. Killing Wilbur was never an option, but he has hurt too many people. He has hurt her so much. This is… mercy.

“I wish you’d been stronger Will. I wanted a life in L’manberg, with you, with all of you, can’t you see? I don’t have anything left to say Wilbur. You broke my trust and hurt too many of us, and me.”

“I cannot tell you whether you are truly a villain here. I believe all of us are, and we will pay for that. But you will pay the most.” she shudders. “And I cannot judge you.”

His eyes widen. His life is now measured in each breath he takes. How many before his blood sizzles against the snow? Till he is an empty body, matching the hollowness he now feels deep inside? Niki can see the fire die in his eyes. A man vanquished, defeated.

She is no angel, but she will bestow him her greatest act of mercy.

His lips move, but she cannot see them. His bowed head hides the pain in his eyes, the words he breathes like a prayer into the night.

I love you.

The blade glides, slicing clean and true. As the blade returns to her side, ruby red drops slowly drip down to the frozen earth.

She drops the blade and sinks into the ground, becoming enveloped by the snow. She stares at the cloudless night sky, the thousands of stars twinkling high above, and thinks of mercy.

She heaves a broken sigh, a small sob escaping her lips. Niki cannot stay here, but she can’t leave him either. In the end, it’s her own body that forces her to find warmth. 

Trudging to the cliffs edge, she looks down at her home, awash with golden light. Her family awaits her there, unknowing of her whereabouts. They’re probably worried for her.

She takes in another breath, still thinking of mercy. The tears track down her cheeks, stinging the cut there. They freeze and flow and keep coming, over and over. 

It should be over. The battle won, the evil defeated. But she has never felt more alone. The thought telling them what she has done… it ruins her. The thought of leaving them hurts her worse.

And so she stumbles down the mountain, back east towards her home, where she will be welcomed with open arms that she doesn’t deserve.

She will forget her sword, abandoned on the ground. And she will never see the frozen fingers that wrap around the hilt, shaking with exhaustion.

The figure will rise, alone in the darkness. He will shiver and shake, but not fall. He leans all of his weight into the sword, using it to push him to the cliffs edge. He can see her figure, retreating through the treacherous terrain.

Looking out, he can see the same things Niki did. But he thinks not of mercy. He does not recall Tommy, or Tubbo. He does not think of his son, his friends.

He thinks of revenge.

“My L’manberg.” he whispers.

His unfinished symphony.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! i appreciate kudos and comments, as well as everyone who supported my last work! if you want an epilogue or any larger scale work i might be interested if i receive a good reception on this one :] ty again, love you all <3


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